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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/24044161">The devil you know</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Elisexyz/pseuds/Elisexyz'>Elisexyz</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>The Witcher (TV)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>(sort of. Geralt is trying.), (though Jaskier already has a crush if you ask me), Canon Compliant, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Gen, Gen or Pre-Slash, Sharing a Bed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-05-10</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-05-10</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-02 16:28:44</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,053</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/24044161</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Elisexyz/pseuds/Elisexyz</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>The first night after Jaskier sees a Kikimora up-close, he doesn’t sleep.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Geralt z Rivii | Geralt of Rivia/Jaskier | Dandelion</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>70</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>289</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>The devil you know</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Written for the Tumblr prompt: <a href="https://heytheredeann.tumblr.com/post/617754659436855296/sorry-i-woke-you-up-and-geraskier-would-be">"Sorry I woke you up." + Geraskier.</a> Set early in their relationship.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The first night after Jaskier sees a Kikimora up-close, he doesn’t sleep.</p><p>Neither does Geralt, for that matter: in spite of his sore muscles and strong desire to get some shut-eye, it’s nearly impossible to relax when he keeps hearing sounds of shuffling, tossing and turning, almost without interruption. The prominent stench of fear doesn’t help matters.</p><p>“Why aren’t you sleeping?” he eventually resolves to ask, somehow hoping to be able to remedy the situation quickly.</p><p>Jaskier, who clearly had no idea that he wasn’t the only one awake, jumps, immediately turning to him with wide eyes.</p><p>“Oh, Geralt — I didn’t notice you were awake.”</p><p>He snorts. “It’s hard not to be, with all that noise you are making.”</p><p>There’s a moment of silence and a grimace flashes on Jaskier’s face, making Geralt almost feel a pang of regret for the remark. “Sorry I woke you up,” he says, with an attempt at a smile. “I’ll try to keep still.”</p><p>The smell of fear hasn’t really vanished. It’s perhaps a little less strong than before, but it’s still very much there.</p><p>Deciding that Jaskier probably <em>won’t</em> manage to keep still anyway and that he’d better deal with the whole situation immediately, Geralt rolls on his side, pushing himself up on his elbow. “You are scared of something,” he states, an implied request to elaborate on what.</p><p>Jaskier opens his mouth to answer, only to close it and hesitate some more. “You are going to find this <em>extremely</em> juvenile,” he warns, eventually. “But I’d ask you to <em>please</em> not laugh at me, alright?”</p><p>“Fine,” Geralt is quick to say. It shouldn’t be difficult: he’s hardly in a laughing mood, he just wants to <em>rest</em>.</p><p>Jaskier presses his lips together, giving him a dubious look, but he starts speaking anyway. “It was that thing, the — the —”</p><p>“Kikimora,” Geralt supplies.</p><p>“Right, thank you, the <em>Kikimora</em>, I suppose I got <em>way</em> too close and now — now I see it in every dark branch, I hear it in every blow of wind and every damn <em>squirrel</em> moving around us —”</p><p>“There are no squirrels,” he corrects, evenly.</p><p>“Every time I close my eyes it’s there, waiting, and it jolts me back awake!” Jaskier continues, ignoring his comment. “It just had — so many <em>legs</em>,” he says then, almost a whine. “It was like an enormous, terrifying <em>spider</em>.”</p><p>Geralt sighs, shaking his head. “I told you to stay behind.”</p><p>Jaskier purses his lips, clearly unhappy with that answer. “<em>Perhaps</em> I should have clarified that lectures are just as unhelpful as laughs here.”</p><p>Yeah, well, in his opinion he still <em>deserves</em> to be lectured. Though maybe this experience will be what finally gets Jaskier to listen to him when he tries to keep him safe — it might even be what finally makes him understand that travelling beside a Witcher is hardly the most brilliant of ideas, though <em>that</em> prospective is not as pleasant as Geralt would have assumed.</p><p>“What <em>would</em> be helpful then?” Geralt asks, or growls, really, still set on getting back to his rest as soon as possible.</p><p>“Well,” Jaskier clicks his tongue, taking a few moments, maybe for suspense’s sake, before answering. “You could let me sleep with you.”</p><p>Geralt blinks. For a moment, he isn’t even sure he heard that right. “What?”</p><p>Jaskier shrugs. “It’d be a little hard to fear being eaten by a giant monster with a big, strong Witcher laying right next to me, wouldn’t it?”</p><p>Geralt frowns, his stomach twisted in knots for no apparent reason. “I would hardly let a Kikimora eat you just because you are sleeping a few feet away, Jaskier.”</p><p>He huffs in a show of frustration, clearly thinking that Geralt is being particularly <em>thick</em>. “I <em>know</em> that, of course I know that, but — but it’s not about <em>being</em> safe, it’s about <em>feeling</em> safe.”</p><p>Geralt blinks, unsure of what to do with the sentiment. It’s unusual for humans not to be scared of him, it’s even <em>more</em> unusual – downright ridiculous, actually – for them to seek him out for <em>comfort</em>. They allow him to protect them, in a way, but they resume to being terrified and pushing him away as soon as the bigger danger has passed, not seeing him as any better than any other monster in the long run, only tolerable so long as his attention is elsewhere.</p><p>He hasn’t yet gotten used to the idea that Jaskier just doesn’t find him scary, at <em>all</em>, and that he’d seek comfort from him is even <em>more</em> puzzling.</p><p>He isn’t sure how long he’s let the silence stretch when he mutters, the annoyance in his tone more of an habit than anything else: “<em>Fine</em>.”</p><p>Jaskier looks genuinely taken a back, taking a moment or two before he answers. “Really?”</p><p>Geralt huffs, shrugging. “Yes, if it is the only way for me to get some sleep.”</p><p>His reward is a giant grin as Jaskier rushes to his feet. “I promise I’ll be perfectly still!” he says, cheerfully, doing his best not to trip on anything as he walks over to him.</p><p>Geralt takes a moment to roll his eyes at himself, shifting a little farther to the side of the bedroll. It’s fine, he favours sleeping on his side anyway. And this should grant him some <em>quiet</em> at least.</p><p>Jaskier settles next to him, on his side, back to Geralt as he curls a little on himself, with his arms to his chest. His fear is all but gone now, his muscles quickly relaxing as he lets out a relieved sigh.</p><p>“I’m feeling safer already!” he says, lightly. “Goodnight, Geralt!”</p><p>Geralt only hums, still pretty fucking puzzled by the nonchalance with which Jaskier turns his back on him and totally at loss as to what to do with it. A part of him just wants to press a sword against his neck and <em>prove</em> to him that he’s being an idiot.</p><p>Instead, he just keeps lying there, staring and listening, already braced for signs of discomfort and fear when Jaskier will eventually realize whom he just got in bed with. Geralt is still awake and waiting when Jaskier falls asleep, still not at all bothered, <em>comforted</em> by their new arrangement.  </p><p>Geralt eventually resigns to getting some sleep himself, his stomach twisted in knots for some reason and a lump in his throat.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>This story is part of the <a href="https://longlivefeedback.tumblr.com/llfcommentproject">LLF Comment Project</a>, which was created to improve communication between readers and authors. This author invites and appreciates comments, including:
</p>
<ul>
<li>Short comments</li>
<li>Long comments</li>
<li>Questions</li>
<li>“&lt;3” as extra kudos</li>
<li>Reader-reader interaction</li>
</ul><p>If you don’t want a reply, for any reason, feel free to sign your comment with “whisper” and I will appreciate it but not respond!</p></blockquote></div></div>
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